Vampire Trinity (53 page)
Authors: Joey W. Hill
“I’m only seeing young girls,” she said, with just a touch of boredom. “You promised me a lion.” She glanced up at him with an avaricious smile tinged with hope that Gideon fervently wished never to see on her face again. “I saw a bear once, in the States. All pent up in a cage outside a casino. He caught a gawker who got too close. They’d declawed him, the cowards, but he still crushed the man’s chest, beat him to death against the bars. It was when I was human, so at the time I thought I was appalled. But secretly . . . it was delicious, in a way.”
“Yeah, you have a taste for it, all right. Maybe you should consider staying in our territory for a while.” Xavier leaned in with a wink. “You could be my little secret, so I wouldn’t have to share you with a territory overlord. I bet Stephen would do it as a favor for me. You could pretend to get on your plane back to the States, but never really go back.”
Anwyn laughed. “As appealing as that sounds, I have a club to run there, a lucrative business. Maybe you could come be
my
little secret, hmm?” She winked at him, moved forward with a sashay of hips that was pretty much indecent. Walking down the stairs had worked the dress up around her hips, the lower curve of one bare buttock almost visible, even in the dim light. She adjusted the hem with a finger caressing the cheek, making Xavier growl low in his chest.
my
little secret, hmm?” She winked at him, moved forward with a sashay of hips that was pretty much indecent. Walking down the stairs had worked the dress up around her hips, the lower curve of one bare buttock almost visible, even in the dim light. She adjusted the hem with a finger caressing the cheek, making Xavier growl low in his chest.
“You’ll be fucking me tonight, fledgling. No matter what clever words you say or do. Hope you can handle a big cock in that smart ass of yours. I want to make you cry.”
“I don’t waste my time on anything small.” She gave that head toss again. “Where’s my lion?”
Xavier chuckled. “Impatient bitch. I have other, more interesting playrooms for vampires beyond this one, but I’ll show you my current prize.” He moved past the cells to another heavy door and pushed it open.
Gideon tried to brace himself for the next horror he would see. More important, he prepared to brace Anwyn, if it was Daegan.
It was.
She saw him first, because Gideon felt all those carefully packed boxes in her mind swell against their seams, in danger of rupturing as rage entered her mind like a flood. It shoved into every corner of her mind, threatening to disrupt that cool veneer that had carried her this far.
He wanted to get closer to her, give her physical as well as emotional support, but Xavier stood between them. His hand was now square on her ass, fondling the hem of her skirt, meaty finger sliding under it. He’d have it in her pussy in a second, and Gideon knew she wouldn’t be able to handle that. Her skin was crawling from everywhere he’d already touched her. The bastard likely planned to fuck her right here. The stench of his arousal was growing.
It was easy to see at a glance why Daegan had sounded so disoriented and weak. He’d been restrained on a steel autopsy table, so that the blood being drained from him flowed down the molded channels. It was a slow drip, but the blood bags to catch the flow were full, another three already lined up where he could see them. There was a refrigerator out in the cell area, so no telling how much had already been banked, or if they were just throwing it away.
Gideon realized the purpose wasn’t torture. That was a side benefit. This was to keep him weak. Apparently, even that hadn’t been enough, because crude electric wires had been wrapped across his far-too-pale body. The bastards had left the power source on, keeping his body jerking, the smell of flesh burning constant and nauseating. No wonder his thoughts had been coming through disjointed.
For as little time as Gideon had known Daegan, perhaps because his mind was so melded with Anwyn’s, he realized he’d unconsciously shared her belief that Daegan Rei would fall to no one. To see him weakened and tortured like this, brought down low by trickery and cowardice, opened something as dark and volatile inside him as what was boiling in Anwyn’s soul. He closed his hands into fists just as Daegan’s eyes opened, the dark, dull depths struggling to focus. Gideon remembered the man’s grace, his deadly speed, the way he’d spoken with such calm about justice. No revenge, no anger, just quiet dispensation to balance the scales.
Sorry, Daegan. I think this calls for full Noah-flood, wrath-of-God response.
“Feel no pity for this one, Mistress Anwyn,” Xavier assured her. “He was a lion to take down in truth. Killed four of my men, even though we had the jump on him. He’s a very powerful vampire. Centuries old.”
“What did he do to earn this punishment?” Her voice was flat and wooden, but fortunately Xavier was caught up in his boasting and didn’t notice.
“He offended me. I will drink his blood, let my men drink it, and keep him alive long past when he is a living skeleton, to show my enemies what I’m capable of being. This is what I was saying, sweet fledgling. I am a worthy overlord for you. At least for tonight. Or until I tire of you.” He gave an ugly laugh that was matched by feral grins from the three vampires now arrayed at the door. Gideon flicked a glance toward them. It was the two from earlier, plus one more. Xavier had apparently signaled them to rejoin the party.
Shit.
Shit.
Anwyn turned on her heel, studying Xavier. “I think it’s time to pay that price of admission,” she said with a slow curve of her lips, the baring of her fangs. To the completely oblivious, it suggested she was aroused by his display of strength. She unfastened her belt, the jewels and chains catching the dim light.
“You knew I wanted to do it right here. Intuitive little thing.” Lust thickened the vampire’s voice. Gideon felt the pressure of his knives, gauged the distance to the three vampires.
We’re still a go, Anwyn. Do it.
We’re still a go, Anwyn. Do it.
“Right here.” She echoed Xavier’s words, a cold and deadly tone entering her soft voice. Then she dropped the belt to the ground with a clink of metal. Threading her fingers under her hair, as if searching for a fastener at the high collar of her dress, she stepped toward the vampire. As he moved to close the distance, she stepped on the belt, the center jewel setting.
The tiny crunch of broken glass made him look down. “Ah, sweet-ling, you broke your pretty baubles. We’ll have to—” He stopped, swaying, his brow furrowing. With a disoriented frown, he turned to his men.
Gideon leaped for him. As expected, the vampires responded instantly, rushing forward to defend their leader.
They crossed right into the invisible fumes now drifting into the air. Thank God it worked fast. They were not as large as Xavier, and fell quicker, dropping to their knees, though one did reach Gideon, tackled him like a front lineman in that rush of movement too quick to follow. Gideon grunted at the bone-breaking impact that would have killed him if he were still human. Now he managed to pull the wooden knives he’d concealed in the lining of his jacket, tearing the seam. He staked the one and lunged for the others, who were scrabbling across the floor, eyes wide and dazed.
Xavier remained on his feet, rocking like a tree in a storm, his eyes flashing with anger and fear at once, his giant fists clenching, trying to fight it off.
Anwyn had shoved away from him in that first moment, stepping out of her shoes lithely to run to Daegan’s side. Putting the filter mask she’d had folded inside the neck of her dress over her nose and mouth, she put another one over Daegan’s face.
Xavier struggled forward, stumbling, his murderous gaze on her. Gideon shouted out a warning, tried to get past the two crawling vampires, but he needn’t have worried about his Mistress.
He never saw a hint of fear. When the big male fell, she moved back toward him, slipping the mask tie over her head to free both her hands. Bending with a predator’s grace, she picked up one of her abandoned stilettos just as Xavier crashed to the floor at her feet. Gideon’s heart skipped a beat at how close the monster was to her. However, dizzy and fumbling, Xavier was unable to push her away as she straddled him. Her eyes bright with cold rage, fangs bared, she slammed the heel of her shoe into his chest. Fueled by vengeance, she brought her fist down on it like a hammer. The impact was so great she caved in his chest, making sure those five inches of wood went straight into his heart.
She twisted it with a snarl, and earned a dying bellow of pain. Shaking himself out of his moment of pure admiration and adoration for her, Gideon straddled the other two helplessly wriggling males and staked them with the wooden-bladed knives. When he spun around, Anwyn was back on her bare feet, her eyes still wild.
“Think I can’t take him with these heels now?” she demanded, her voice muffled by the filter mask.
It took a second to recall his thought about her shoes, barely an hour ago. But she wasn’t seeking a response. She was back at Daegan’s side, hand on his mask to steady it, to make sure he didn’t inadvertently inhale the now-dissipating fumes. Though most vampires didn’t breathe when unconscious, Brian had explained the fumes could still enter the nasal membranes or soft tissue in the roof of the mouth if they didn’t take the precaution.
Brian’s chemical worked on the same theory of high-noon daylight, making vampires more sluggish, the reaction enhanced by a factor of ten. It had no impact on humans. Gideon had wondered if the Council knew Brian was not only researching vampire weaknesses, but making weapons out of them, but knew it was far more likely he was making them with their blessing.
A worry for another time.
He covered the door as she secured the straps for the mask over Daegan’s ears. Then she disconnected the battery holding the wires with a competence that suggested she wasn’t unfamiliar with electric shock, at least as a BDSM tool. As she pulled the needles out of his arms and throat as gently as she could, she studied the pale face, the closed eyes. “He needs blood, Gideon. A lot of it.” Her head came up. “Go into the next room. In that first cell.”
Gideon glanced at her sharply, as if he’d caught something unexpected from her mind. “You’re not suggesting those girls—”
“If it would save his life and not take theirs? In a heartbeat,” she snapped. “But there was a refrigerator there, remember? I’m willing to bet they bank human blood in case of emergencies. Go get as much as you can carry. Unless you have some moral objection to
that
.”
that
.”
Knowing she sounded shrill, she closed her eyes, fighting her unreasonable anger with him, out of proportion for the moment. The bloodlust boiling through her, the cacophony of voices in her head, were way too roused by this environment.
When he pivoted on his heel without further comment, going into the next room to find the fridge, she located a fan in the corner. Turning it on, she waited a few key seconds before she took a cautious inhalation without her mask to confirm the fumes had dispersed adequately. Putting a hand on Daegan’s far-too-still face, her throat got thick as she removed the mask and stroked his hair, bent to touch his cold mouth. Thank God Xavier and his men hadn’t favored human servants. If they’d dropped dead on the floor above at the moment she and Gideon had taken their Masters’ lives, it might have brought a larger force of vampires down here. As it was, it was getting too close to dawn. Soon the club doors would be closing, and she was sure this lower level was where Xavier’s men passed the daylight hours, probably toying with those poor girls in the next room, and whatever fresh victims they brought down.
Tapping into Gideon’s mind, she found her servant had met an obstacle. The girls still aware enough had shrunk back in fear as he came into the cell. He spoke to them quietly, told them they were trying to get them out of there, but they needed to stay put for now. However, Sarah, the girl who had been in a fetal position, apparently was quite tough, as Xavier had said. At Gideon’s words she’d made it to her feet, albeit swaying on legs that were far too thin. The feral look in her eye said she was cognizant enough to recognize escape was near, but her mind too altered to hear what he was saying. The twisting agony in Gideon’s heart shot pain through Anwyn’s when he had to shove the girl back forcibly, closing the cell door. They couldn’t risk her running aloft and calling down the others any sooner.
It’s all right, Gideon. We’ll take care of them all.
Yeah. A little late for that.
His hot hatred and revulsion for vampire kind boiled over into her brain, nearly upsetting that cauldron of simmering bloodlust. She had to fight it down, enough that when he brought her the blood, she could manage only a curt nod. “Watch the door.”
His hands were clenched into fists, his gaze on Daegan’s too-pale face, but he complied. Anwyn tore the seal off the first packet and brought it to Daegan’s lips.
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